German Ritual Phrases: German is quite an inflected language. For instance the simple English ritual phrase, “accept our offering” becomes quite involved and has numerous variations. Is one addressing one entity or more than one? Is one presenting one item as offering or multiple items? If multiple items, are they multiples of the same item (ie: 4 spoons) or completely different items (ie: 1 spoon, 1 knife, and 1 fork)? The answers to each of these questions determines how the phrase is translated.

Many of our ritual phrases can be directly translated into German, but that is not how any German-speaker would ever say it. For instance, “Let the Gates be open,” can be directly translated. However, German-speakers would be far more direct in their wording and say, “Open the gates!” Where I was able, I have included both the formal translation, and the more colloquial. The direct translation for Holy Ones is “Heilige.” However, to German-speakers, that words means “saints,” which is not quite what is meant. In this phrase book I have included both “Heilige,” which is technically correct, and “Götter” which is closer to our English meaning.

There is no direct translation for “Kindreds” in German. I spent an evening discussing the difficulty of this phrase with three native German speakers (one originally Swiss, one from Saxony, and one from the Netherlands border)). The closest word to “Kindreds” is a phrase that was tainted by extensive use by the Nazi party. So they have several work arounds that come close to the meaning. Often, they simply use the English term in their ritual work, or “Götte und Geiste” (gods and spirits).

This Nazi issue extends into many elements of ritual speech. Many, many American pagans on a Germanic path say “Hail” throughout their rituals. Germans simply refuse to say “Heil” for very obvious reasons. Standing in ritual with Germans, they said “cheers” or “prost” instead, which was oddly informal.